Evaluation of Windows 7 RC Build 7100

1. Evaluation of Windows 7 RC Build 7100 By Muswera Walter Supervisor: Mr John Ebden Consultants: Billy Morgan and Jill Japp

2. Background • Vista was not received warmly due to bugs, crashes, poor performance and software incompatibility and demand for system resources • Microsoft has been working on a new Operating System (OS) • Available release at time of evaluation was Windows 7 RC Build 7100 (May 2009)

3. Motivation Claims have been made about improvements that have been made on Windows 7 since the XP era and the ill fated Vista era: • Security • Software compatibility • Enhanced performance (graphics, disk I/O, robustness etc) • Ease and speed of installation • Fast start-up and shutdown time • User friendliness This assessment was carried out to validate some of these claims

4. Importance of this Research Every new OS should be tested/evaluated before being deployed at full scale to allow for: • Planning of transition (upgrade and training) • Avert loss of time and revenue through crashes and incompatibilities • Evaluate availability of system support

5. Features Evaluated • Security • Virtualisation • Software compatibility • Performance benchmarking

6. Minimum System Requirements for Windows 7 • 1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor • 1 GB of system memory • 16 GB of available disk space • support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128 MB memory (to enable the Aero theme) • DVD-R/W Drive • Internet access for updates Same as Vista • Specifications of Experimental Machine • Intel Core 2 Quad processor (Q9400 - 2.66GHz, 6MB L2 cache) • 4GB RAM • 500GB SATA hard drive with 32MB cache • 256MB graphics with DirectX 10 support • DVI and VGA connector • DVD writer with LightScribe • G45M Digital motherboard with 1GB network port

7. Testing Conditions • The same computer hardware was used for all tests • Both OS were installed fresh in a dual boot setup • Results obtained reflect what you get when you install a plain OS without any tweaks or configuration changes (standard install) • Install time was measured from the moment the option to boot from CD/DVD was chosen until the point where the desktop reached. • Windows 7 Ultimate (32bit RCBuild 7100) • XP Professional (32bit SP3)

8. Security • Bitlocker and Bitlocker To Go • 100MB partition • TPM and PCR • Usability on other PCs running other Oses • Bitlocker To Go Reader • UAC • Implementation of the 4 new levels • Is it really secure?

9. Virtualisation • Windows XP Mode • consists of two things: • the Windows Virtual PC engine • a licensed copy of Windows XP SP3 • System requirements • 2GB of memory • 15GB disk space/virtual machine

10. Software Compatibility tests • Successful Installations • Compatibility issues • Drivers (TPM) • Nero 7 (program has known compatibility issues) • Daemon Tools (program blocked due to compatibility issues)

11. Tests carried out on XP SP3 and Windows 7 • Performance benchmarking • Installation time for each operating system • Logon, boot up and shutdown time

12. Performance • PassmarkPerformanceTest version 7.0 was used to assess perfomance • CPU test suite is designed to measure CPU operations • Memory test suite is designed to exercise the memory sub-system of the computer. • Disk test suite is designed to measure the rate at which files are read and written from and to disk • 2D Graphics test suite tests of standard two dimensional graphical functions • 3D Graphics test suite measures the performance of the 3D graphics

13. CPU Tests • Units of Measurement • Integer - Millions of operations per second • Floating Point - Millions of operations per second • Find Prime numbers • Thousands of Primes per second • Compression - Kilobytes Processed per second • Physics - Frames per second • Random String Sorting - Thousand Strings per second

14. Memory Tests • Units of Measurement • Cached - Megabytes transferred per second • Uncached - Megabytes transferred per second • Write - Megabytes transferred per second • Allocate small block- Megabytes transferred per second • Large RAM - Operations per second

15. DiskTests • Units of Measurement • Disk Sequential Write - Megabytes transferred per second • Disk Sequential Read - Megabytes transferred per second • Disk Random Seek + RW - Megabytes transferred per second

16. 2D Graphics Tests • Units of Measurement • Solid Vectors - Thousands of vectors drawn per second • Transparent Vectors - Thousands of vectors drawn per second • Complex Vectors- Complex vectors drawn per second • Fonts and Text - Operations per second • Windows Interface Operations per second • Image Filters - Filters per second • Image Rendering- Images per second

17. 3D Graphics Tests • Units of Measurement • Simple - Frames per second • Medium - Frames per second • Complex - Frames per second. • DirectX 11 issues on complex graphics test

18. Summary of Findings • BitLockerDrive Encryption and Bitlocker To Go in Windows 7 require special hardware • XP Mode also requires special hardware • BitLocker Drive Encryptionand BitlockerTo Go are only available in the Ultimate and Enterprise Editions • XP Mode is available only in the Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise Editions • Windows 7 is incompatible with some software • Windows XP dominated most of the benchmarks run • Windows 7 performs better in the 3D graphics

19. Conclusions • XP still remains a better desktop OS since: • it has few application compatibility issues • works on ordinary hardware and • has a better performance. • disadvantage of “black box” benchmarking is that it cannot conclusively explain all of the performance differences • it merely exposes the differences